A Moving Force

She was a long time member of the church I served and I was the last person in her nursing home room after they took her body to the funeral home. I stood there staring at the empty bed. The rude truth strikes me that this woman who was so powerful in the congregation was gone. She had been a moving force in the church and a woman of both a great faith and a great love. Even from her nursing home bed her influence had been felt through out the church.

Enduring the pain of bone cancer she always radiated joy to her visitors and prayed with them before they left her room. She had a saying that was repeated over and over by the women of the church for years after her death:

“When you are at your wits end and have used up all of your resources remember that God will pull you through. Life is not about self-reliance but about but about turning your challenges into opportunities to serve God.”